Bing Meilu watched in consternation as her disciple fell from the sky and plunged into the black water below. Above, the split curtain of black thunderclouds roared ominously. White explosions of thunder lit up the darkness with irregular flashes. Luckily for the girl, the pressure of the Tribulation had already driven away the local sea life, otherwise Xia Xuefeng would already have been consumed whole by now.
Bing Meilu had suspected there may be strange occurrences with the Blood Cultivator's Heavenly Tribulation. First of all, she was a bearer of a not insignificant amount of Karmic Merit - Courtesy of her time in the Shadow Pit and the numerous Demonic Cultivators she had killed. That should have resulted in a weak and relatively safe tribulation filled with purifying vital energy.
Second, she was also a subordinate of Bing Meilu, who had made herself an irredeemable enemy of the Dao of Heaven itself. That should have resulted in Xia Xuefeng being stripped of all her Karmic Merit, and subjected to terrifying Tribulations wrought with danger and lacking in any beneficial energies at all.
But Xia Xuefeng had not been stripped of her Karmic Merit. That in itself was quite a mysterious and interesting fact. Bing Meilu had not been entirely sure why until now. There were multiple potential answers, so the exact reason could not be deduced. At least not without directly investigating the workings of the Heavenly Mysteries, which only became possible in the Ancient Sage Realm.
Perhaps Xia Xuefeng's Karmic Merit was somehow related to her status as the holder of the Key of Grand Emperor Blacksky's tomb and thus was beyond recrimination from the Heavens of the Jade Sparrow Continent? Or maybe it was part of some Heavenly plot to subvert one of Bing Meilu's subordinates with the 'carrot' of Karmic Merit? Those had been some of her initial theories.
Well, now Bing Meilu had an answer.
'The Dao of Heaven is in full disarray,' Bing Meilu realized. 'It's far more damaged than I realized, even this early in the timeline!'
The coming God-Blood Crisis had thrown the entire World System of the Great Flock Realm in disarray. The Dao of Heaven had already begun to break down severely. The birth of Daoist Skyfall, the Demonic Cultivator Chosen of Heaven, had been the first sign of it. Like the first cracks in a dam about to collapse. However, even with that, Bing Meilu did not think this should have been possible so early on.
It should have been totally impossible for a single cultivator to experience two entirely separate Tribulations at the same time. In fact, even when multiple cultivators, such as the Elemental Five, underwent a breakthrough together, the Tribulations would merge and strengthen into one greater Tribulation. That had not happened either.
That is to say, the current Dao of Heaven had gone totally mad.
It could not tell that Xia Xuefeng, bearer of Karmic merit, and Xia Xuefeng, a disciple of Bing Meilu, were the same person. Thus two separate tribulations had been lined up. This led to the situation where the Heaven of the Bird Talon Continent had the totally contradictory instructions of 'reward Xia Xuefeng, a bearer of Karmic Merit' and 'Kill Xia Xuefeng, an enemy of the Heavens'. Whatever higher function was supposed to resolve this error had already broken down from the intrusion of the accursed blood that was corroding the external Barrier of the Great Flock Realm.
Unable to resolve this contradiction, the local Dao to Heaven had just decided to do both at the same time. Thus it had spawned two separate Core Formation Heavenly Tribulations for the same person.
It was possible that the presence of the Key to Grand Emperor Blacksky's Tomb was worsening the confusion. Alternatively, it was possible that Bing Meilu was simply incorrect about how severe the damage from the God-Blood Crisis should have been at this point in the timeline. The final, and worst, option was that the God-Blood Crisis was somehow stronger than in her first life.
It was difficult to put into words how much of a catastrophe this was. A fundamental law of the Dao of Heaven was that it had to be fair. Even when Tribulations merged, they could not excessively target a single individual, but fairly spread the danger between participants. Having two entirely separate tribulations attacking you at the same time, both tuned to be 'fair' to your power level, meant the difficulty would be immense. Even worse was the 'suppression' aura that came from the Yang Trigram energy of the Tribulation, which was now doubled, making it nearly impossible for Xia Xuefeng to control her own Qi or even move.
Someone with a powerful Dao-Heart could have resisted such suppression, but Xia Xuefeng was not at that level already.
'...She may very well die here,' Bing Meilu frowned.
That being said, in every dark cloud there was a silver lining. If Xia Xuefeng did not buckle under the pressure, this was a marvellous opportunity for her to become stronger and refine her own willpower. If her Core were to be baptized in two strikes of Five-Colored Lighting at the same time, it could well form into some sort of mutated, superior construct that was not normally possible to achieve.
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That left only one question. Should Bing Meilu intervene?
---
Ji Hui sat in his quarters in the Captured Slave Galley, eyes deep in meditation. Boots had curled up against him, resting his head on his owner's knees. Beneath them, a large Qi-Gathering Formation glittered. Every room had one installed, powered by the massive Spirit Furnaces burning at all times in the boiler room. Fueled by the unending tides of Qi-rich Sea Beast flesh gathered by the Galley, they could easily be kept at max-efficiency all hours of the day.
The Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth swirled towards Ji Hui in a vortex as he pulled it into himself. The energy traced through his meridian system, from the seventh aperture to the nineteenth to the thirtieth. Slowly it was refined according to the Beast-Man Becoming Art that Bing Meilu had taught him.
From the raw power of the world it was filtered and distilled and coloured until a thick, ferocious Beast Qi remained. Ji Hui finally fed the newly refined Qi into his Dantian.
Within said space, was a large Taiji diagram that hurriedly rotated. In the field of white that represented Yang, a large, ferocious red wolf stood, running to keep up with the diagram's rotation. The dot of Lesser Yin within Greater Yang. It was the spiritual form of a Corpse-Refining Red Wolf that he had copied from Boots.
In the field of black that represented Yin, a vaguely dog-shaped mass of crackling white thunder ran. The dot of Lesser Yang within Greater Yin. It was the Heavenly Tribulation Thunder Spirit Dog he had absorbed into himself during his Foundation Establishment Heavenly Tribulation.
For there was a seed of Yin within Yang, and Yang within Yin. Together the Two Instruments played reality. They were the Supremacy of One - The Taiji.
Ji Hui's Beast Qi poured into the two spirits within his Dantian, nourishing them as they grew slightly in stature. The wolf and dog roared in unison, the howl echoing through his body as he finally broke through to the tenth and final stage of Foundation Establishment.
Not one to be left out, Ji Hui joined the howl, a wolf-life roar emitting from his mouth as he threw his head back. Boots rose its head up, shaggy red fur swaying as it craned its neck to the sky and howled.
"Awoooooooooo!"
Having expended much of his Qi reserve in the breakthrough, Ji Hui's body collapsed back down to his bed. He inhaled deeply, savouring the fresh air in his lungs. The scent of fresh air, with a subtle medical fragrance from some incense he had burned earlier.
For a while, Ji Hui sat there, allowing his Qi reserves to recover as he circulated his cultivation base.
'I think I can try for Core Formation tomorrow or the day after,' the Lieutenant of the Armada yawned.
He suddenly felt a mighty pulse of Qi coming from the west. Ji Hui turned to stare out of his room's viewing window, enhancing his eyes with Qi. His pupils. Was... was that Xia Xuefeng, falling?
---
Xia Xuefeng let loose a wordless scream as she was choked by the black waters. She could feel a crushing weight upon her chest, like a mountain had fallen upon her. She could recall the feeling of the suppressive Yang Aura of her Foundation Establishment Heavenly Tribulation. But this pressure was in another league entirely.
Pain flared through Xia Xuefeng's mind. The tentative Core that had begun to form in the center of her Dantianbegan to dissolve, as she lost control and pressure of her Qi.
'No! No!' her mind went blank with panic.
If that went-if she could not properly form her Core before the Tribulation truly set in, she would surely die.
'I'll die if I don't get out of this damned water!' she screamed internally.
Xia Xuefeng could feel her lungs start to burn from the lack of air. With all of her Qi expelled from the shattering of her Dao-Platform, she was just an ordinary mortal girl. She desperately forced her aching limbs to move against the water, but it was futile.
Above, the Tribulation clouds rumbled threateningly. She likely had around a minute before the bolts of Heavenly Tribulation Lightning began to descend and then it would really be all over...
'Why am I even here?'
The thought cut through the foggy haze of oxygen deprivation. Here she was, drowning in a black and merciless ocean, about to be skewered and fried and then obliterated into ash. Surrounded by a vortex of blood and screaming souls she herself had killed-what exactly was the point of all this?
Why wasn't she safe at home in her family's warm bakery, smelling freshly baked loaves?
She remembered her words to Bing Meilu,when the girl had asked her why she cultivated.
'I want to be the kind of person who does something notable, the kind of person people study about in history books.'
Xia Xuefeng wanted to make her mark on mankind, to be known worldwide. To be spoken of in hushed whispers around campfires, or played as in a game between laughing children. To be remembered as someone more than just a baker's daughter.
It felt like such an unbelievably naive answer now. Written in the history books? Make her mark on the world? She was just a stupid little girl who was lucky to have made it even this far.
Was such a thing even worth it? Worth the pain, the danger? Worth killing another man for? Was it worth all those screaming souls trapped in her Dantian, whispering the songs of the damned?
'I am about to die,' Xia Xuefeng realized.
And with it, there was a strange form of acceptance.
'I guess in my next life-I'll try and live a simpler life...'
She closed her eyes, and let the darkness take her.